Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The present disclosure relates generally to devices and systems for power management such as power monitoring, control, and measurement. Such as devices and systems that may be used to prevent power interruptions or improve power quality through the use of an operator-computer-controlled interface. For example, the present disclosure may find use in various types of power management devices such as power switchgear, Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPSs), load banks, generators, Computer Room Air Conditioner (CRAC) units, Computer Room Air Handling (CRAH) units, parallel switchgear, substation switchgear, utility switchgear, and the like. More specifically, this application concerns methods and systems for control of a power-quality measuring or monitoring device, such as a transfer switch.
Power-quality measuring and monitoring is an important concept in the power industry and generally relates to devices, methods, and systems that ensure that an alternating current (AC) power system is consistent, free from harmonic content, and/or remains uninterrupted. For example, a power-quality meter is one type of device that can give some form of harmonic content indication. Another example of a power-quality and monitoring device is a power transfer switch that is used to switch electrical loads between two independent sources of power, so as to prevent disruption in service. A principal goal of a power transfer-switch system is to ensure that the electrical load is supplied with an acceptable source of power at a high rate of availability and to minimize load disruptions. Power transfer switches are in widespread use in, e.g., airports, subways, schools, hospitals, military installations, industrial sites, and commercial buildings equipped with secondary power sources and where even brief power interruptions can be costly or perhaps even life threatening.
Power transfer switches typically contain numerous features, such as various functions, controls, settings, and capabilities. Power transfer switches also are extremely high power electrical equipment and thus garner a great deal of respect from operators of transfer switches. For example, due to the high complexity and potential for unintended operation (such as switching to a generator that is connected but under maintenance or undersized for newly installed load), transfer-switch users are typically extremely cautious about exploring the controls and settings of a transfer switch. Therefore, a process of learning and/or exploring the controls and settings of the transfer switch typically falls on the transfer-switch manual to detail the complete operation of the transfer switch controls. However, this places a burden on transfer-switch users or operators to either read through the entire manual or simply learn a small subset of operations. Only learning a small subset of available operations may, for example, leave the transfer switch underutilized. Underutilization of the transfer switch may even result in financial burden, for example, if the user chooses to install additional equipment that duplicates functionality the user was unaware could be achieved with their current transfer switch.